One of the questions I wondered is to what end? Obviously it was used to support the EPA's rollback of the endangerment finding, but a prominent legal scholar told us the ultimate target might be getting the landmark climate case Mass vs. EPA overturned by the Supreme Court

It is true that 4 countries will concentrate Li production (AUS-CHL-CHN-ARG), but we need to also trace the geographical expansion of Li projects as this process has global implications: today, Li mining exists in 9 countries, but in the future, it could expand to an additional 26 across continents.

It is fundamental to ensure mining is sustainable anywhere. Hence, it is just as important to pay attention to the GS as to cases like the US (1-4-54), Canada (2-4-61), and Australia (7-2-53). Dispossession and local impacts against vulnerable communities also occur in industrialized nations.

Argentina is the GS country concentrating efforts with 3 active projects, 6 mines being developed, and 37 under exploration. African countries (particularly Zimbabwe) are also affected: 2-4-18. Caveat: 50% of exploration projects worldwide are "initial" efforts, and several will fail.

Considering projects under feasibility studies (total of 61), 36 would exist in the Global North in the short-mid term. This does not mean the Global South will not be affected by lithium expansion...

Today, 27 mines exist across 9 countries, split between the GN (10), GS (10), and China (07). In the near future, the distribution between GN/GS will hold with six new producers: out of 26 mines currently being developed, 12 are from the GN, 13 from GS (Africa and Argentina), and 1 in China.

...Hence, context-specific hydrology studies are necessary to evaluate the entire cycle of production (Vera et al., 2023).

...However, the DLE footprint highly depends on where the energy to power this technology comes from, and studies evaluating indirect impacts related to chemical and water use are still insufficient (Mousavinezhad et al., 2024).

...On one hand, DLE could be more efficient in selecting lithium (either by absorption, membrane-based, or ion-exchanged methods), potentially reducing the amount of chemicals, energy, and water required to obtain lithium (Krishnan & Gopan 2024: 6-7)...

English: Green energy markets are enabling uranium mining expansion, even in countries like Peru, where no legislation exists to mine the radioactive resource (but it does allow for its exploration). This area in Puno also contains potentially huge lithium resources.

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